Outside the Box

One of the amazing events that happened during the giving of the Torah is described in this verse (Devarim 5:19): “G-d spoke these words… with a great voice that did not cease.” On the words “did not cease,” the Midrash explains that G-d’s voice had no echo.

The Jews were gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai, surrounded by hills and mountains. The topography was such that any loud, powerful voice should have produced an equally resounding echo. Yet all that was heard was G-d’s own voice, with no return call.

Chassidic teachings explain that the lack of an echo was not a miracle but a natural result of the spiritual phenomenon that happened when the Torah was given—the joining of the physical and spiritual. This process is explained with a simple parable: “There was a king who decreed that the people of Rome may not go down to Syria, and the people of Syria may not go up to Rome. Later he nullified this decree and said, ‘I will be the first.’”

Until the Torah was given, there was a barrier between the upper spiritual worlds and the lower physical world. The two existed as separate domains that could never meet. Physical matter could never become holy. When the Torah was given, this barrier was removed. G-d Himself descended from heaven in order to bring the Torah down to earth.

An echo occurs when sound encounters a barrier of some sort and the wave is deflected back. But when G-d spoke on Mount Sinai, for the first time in history there was no barrier between physical and spiritual. No mountain, no stone could block the G-dly voice from penetrating. G-d’s voice was fully absorbed by the physical world, with no echo.

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About 150 years, a new movement swept the Jewish world. It was known as Haskalah, or “enlightenment.” Its goal was to radically alter Jewish identity and to make the Jewish people more like other nations. One of their mottos was, “A Jew at home, a man outside.” In other words, religion is a private matter to be kept in your home. But when you go to work or mingle among other people, there is no need to call attention to your Jewish identity.

In other words, they believed that the spiritual and physical domains should be kept strictly separate. Our spiritual lives—Torah study, prayer, faith, ritual—do not intersect with our day to day lives, career, politics, entertainment.

This philosophy is diametrically opposed to the theme of Mattan Torah. The Torah was given to fuse the physical and the spiritual. There is no aspect of life that is “off-limits,” that cannot be made holy. On the contrary, our goal is to “sanctify ourselves with what is permitted,” to elevate our mundane lives to holiness and permeate every aspect of life with G-dliness.

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The era of Moshiach is a time when the fusion of spiritual and physical will reach its highest point. To live with Redemption means that our belief in Moshiach finds expression in daily life—so that everything we do is permeated with holiness.

Believing in Moshiach means going outside our box and adopting new ways of thinking. It means living with fewer worries about finances or security. It means making spiritual values first and foremost in our lives. It means transforming our relationships with others, to focus less on petty jealousies and more on our shared goals and common humanity.

With just a bit of effort we can accomplish this transformation in our lives. And thereby we bring about the full flourishing of the prophecies of Redemption, immediately in our days